CategoryFilm Festivals
Horror film festivals worldwide — lineups, awards and the titles that break out of the festival circuit.
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The U.K.’s Arrow Video FrightFest is one of our absolute favorite fear-fare film festivals here at Horror Fuel, and we are pleased to share the poster reveal for this year’s edition. We also can’t wait to tell you about their lineup, which will be revealed this Thursday, July 14! Arrow Video FrightFest is proud to present Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2022, which marks the 14th appearance for his iconic Monster. Graham revealed today: “The predominant theme is a celebration of past ‘trophy’ films. I took my inspiration references from an old paperback cover ‘Vincent Price presents: The Price of Fear’, in which Vincent’s head is depicted mounted on a wooden shield. It seemed the perfect way to represent the films, with key portraiture represented as mounted heads. Rather than mount the head of the regular FrightFest monster, I thought it would be fun to turn him into the roaring lion of MGM’s familiar mascot!” This year’s annual Bank
Continue reading →
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The first clip for Berkley Brady‘s horror-thriller Dark Nature has arrived ahead of its World Premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival. In the film, “Joy, a survivor of domestic violence, joins her friend Carmen and her therapy group on an isolated weekend retreat in the Canadian Rockies. Led by the enigmatic Dr. Dunnley – whose methods are experimental and, at times, dubious from Joy’s outside perspective – the experience eventually shatters the border between reality and delusion. Joy begins to suspect that they are being stalked by her abuser when in truth, the entire group will be forced to confront a threat even more terrifying than the monsters of their past.” Hannah Emily Anderson, Roseanne Supernault, Kyra Harper, Madison Walsh, and Daniel Arnold star in Dark Nature. The film marks the feature debut of Métis filmmaker Berkley Brady, and is an anxiety-inducing horror-thriller set and filmed in the vast Canadian Rockies almost entirely with practical FX and real stunts. With
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Cruise Once, many, many moons ago, I worked a temporary job at a call center, and it was the most soul-sucking employment I have ever experienced. Writer/director Samuel Rudykoff’s horror comedy Cruise ratchets up things to another level as his short sees employees at a scam cruise-contest call center lose their souls along with their lives if they don’t close calls successfully. Jake (Chad Andrews) and Mark (Simon Pond) both give it their best shot, with an unforgiving supervisor (Ray James) keeping a close watch. The performances are all super solid, and Rudykoff does a great job building suspense while delivering laughs. Exo Sapien South African science fiction suspenser Exo Sapien, written and helmed by Fried Barry director/cowriter James C. Williamson, finds space explorer Cass (Lisa Scholtz) trying to survive on a hostile Earth after her vehicle crashes in a remote area. Suffering memory loss and being hunted down by scavengers and other dangers, she carries with her a mysterious
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsThriller
Night Breakers Here’s a creature fraught with suspense not only from potential monster attacks but also from the apprehension and paranoid feelings between characters. A group of people — leader Joel (Andrew Tarbet), Mei (Chacha Huang), Sunna (Anna Gonzalvo), Trevor (Pol Fernandez), Martin (Marc Padró), and Jacob (Sergi Subirà) — are traversing a dark path through maze-like caves to reach a city. Each member is wearing strings of bright lights powered by ever-weakening batteries. These lights fend off vicious beasts but as soon as someone’s lights go out, they become monster chow. As batteries become more scarce, tensions rise and the humans become as dangerous as the creatures pursuing them. Cowriters/codirectors Gabriel Campoy and Guillem Lafoz have crafted a terrific, tension-filled short that cries out to be turned into a feature, and their cast members all give top-notch performances. Unicorn Bisexual man Charles (Charles Gould) has arranged a first-time meeting with couple Bella (Brianna Baker) and Larry (Patrick Woodall) to
Continue reading →
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The always incredible Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates its 26th anniversary in Montreal this summer, running from July 14—August 3. North America’s largest genre film fest, Fantasia boasts more than 130 feature films and more than 200 shorts from around the globe. Here are five of the many horror titles that look to be highly intriguing, with comments from yours truly in italics after the official festival descriptions. Glorious Ryan Kwanten (TRUE BLOOD) and J.K. Simmons (WHIPLASH) star in veteran genre journalist, filmmaker, and podcaster Rebekah McKendry’s wickedly funny, mind-bending mix of comedy, horror, sci-fi and gloriously indescribable weirdness. In GLORIOUS, After a breakup, Wes (Kwanten) ends up at a remote rest stop and finds himself locked inside the bathroom with a mysterious figure speaking from an adjacent stall. Soon Wes realizes he has found himself in a nightmare scenario more terrible than he could ever imagine. World Premiere. Dr. McKendry is a fright-film treasure, an expert in the field
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Girls Night In Director Alison Roberto’s horror comedy Girls Night In takes a satirical stab as it takes into consideration The Bechdel Test, which, according to https://bechdeltest.com, “is a simple test [about films] which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. ” This blast of a short film, with a clever screenplay by Landon LaRue, finds cautious, diabetic Becca (Jess Adams) and her outgoing friend Delaney (Skylar Benton) spending the evening over a bottle of what the latter insists is carb-free wine, when an intruder with deadly intentions invades the former’s home. As the girls attempt to shelter themselves in Becca’s bathroom and call 911 for help, the absurdity kicks in. Adams and Benton are obviously having a lot of fun in their roles. As with much satirical comedy, the humor is divisive, using elements that would not
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
A Wounded Fawn Director Travis Stevens’ new feature A Wounded Fawn starts off in the world of high-end art and winds up in the depths of a serial killer’s mind, taking concepts from Greek mythology along for the entire ride. The result is a superb blend of supernatural and psychological horror from the man who helmed Jakob’s Wife and Girl on the Third Floor. Meredith (Sara Lind) has successfully gotten out of and over an abusive relationship, and she is ready to test the dating waters once again. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to her, the man she plans to spend the weekend with at his remote cabin is Bruce Ernst (Josh Rubin), who is revealed at the beginning of the film to be a murderer. Meredith becomes suspicious of Ernst when she sees an art piece at his home depicting The Erinyes — also known as The Furies — that just recently passed through the auction house where she works. Seasoned fear-fare
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Austrian horror film Family Dinner serves up characters and situations that haunt long after the ending credits roll. Wonderfully acted, grim, and unsettling, writer/director Peter Hengl’s debut big-screen feature does a fine job of getting under the skin of viewers. Simi (Nina Katlein) is an overweight teenager who visits her Aunt Claudia (Pia Hierzegger), a published cookbook author and authority on nutrition, in the hopes of losing some weight. Her visit is met with a cool welcome, and she is told that she must leave in a few days, before Claudia, her new husband Stefan (Michael Pink), and Claudia’s son from her first marriage, Filipp (Alexander Sledik), celebrate Easter. Simi must room with Filipp, and his despisal of her is clear from the beginning. He taunts her by showing off his torso, and his relationship with his mother and new stepfather is also highly strained. Claudia seems to be either skirting around information or outright lying when she is not
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
LGBTQ horror is having a strong year, from the film festival success of Hypochondriac to the upcoming Kevin Bacon vehicle They/Them to the resurrected release this month of the 2010 cult film All About Evil. Writer/director Carter Smith (The Ruins) delivers a squirm-inducing entry into the subgenre with Swallowed, which uses both body horror and survival horror in its nerve-wracking tale of plans gone awry among two friends. Benjamin (Cooper Koch) is celebrating his last night in town before moving to Los Angeles to become a gay porn actor. His straight best friend Dom (Jose Colon) is concerned about Benjamin’s future, so he has a plan to make some fast cash for his buddy. What Dom believes is a simple drug run turns out to be much worse than that, as the pair are held at gunpoint by deal go-between Alice (Jena Malone) and forced to swallow bags of illicit goods. When they go to a specified rest stop to
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
Let’s be honest; family dinners are a nightmare for most people. The new film, titled Family Dinner, turns into terror. Ahead of its premiere at Tribeca on June 10th, the teaser trailer has arrived for the film, written and directed by Peter Hengl. In the foreign-language film (with English subtitles), “Tired of feeling down about her weight, plus-sized 15-year-old Simi (Nina Katlein) heads to her aunt Claudia’s house for Easter weekend. Claudia (Pia Hierzegger), a popular nutritionist who’s written best-selling health books, so for Simi, spending a few days together could help change her diet and inspire weight loss.” “What should’ve been a nice holiday weekend with family quickly reveals anything but. Simi’s cousin, Filipp (Alexander Sladek), is curiously hostile towards her, while Filipp’s stepdad, Stefan (Michael Pink), is curiously the opposite towards Simi. At the same time, Claudia’s dietary guidance verges on becoming overly militant. What’s causing everyone to act so strangely and aggressively? The answers are even worse
Continue reading →
More from Film Festivals
EventsFilm FestivalsNews
The U.K.’s Arrow Video FrightFest is one of our absolute favorite fear-fare film festivals here at Horror Fuel, and we are pleased to share the poster reveal for this year’s edition. We also can’t wait to tell you about their lineup, which will be revealed this Thursday, July 14! Arrow Video FrightFest is proud to present Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2022, which marks the 14th appearance for his iconic Monster. Graham revealed today: “The predominant theme is a celebration of past ‘trophy’ films. I took my inspiration references from an old paperback cover ‘Vincent Price presents: The Price of Fear’, in which Vincent’s head is depicted mounted on a wooden shield. It seemed the perfect way to represent the films, with key portraiture represented as mounted heads. Rather than mount the head of the regular FrightFest monster, I thought it would be fun to turn him into the roaring lion of MGM’s familiar mascot!” This year’s annual Bank
Continue reading →
ClipsFilm FestivalsIndieMoviesNews
The first clip for Berkley Brady‘s horror-thriller Dark Nature has arrived ahead of its World Premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival. In the film, “Joy, a survivor of domestic violence, joins her friend Carmen and her therapy group on an isolated weekend retreat in the Canadian Rockies. Led by the enigmatic Dr. Dunnley – whose methods are experimental and, at times, dubious from Joy’s outside perspective – the experience eventually shatters the border between reality and delusion. Joy begins to suspect that they are being stalked by her abuser when in truth, the entire group will be forced to confront a threat even more terrifying than the monsters of their past.” Hannah Emily Anderson, Roseanne Supernault, Kyra Harper, Madison Walsh, and Daniel Arnold star in Dark Nature. The film marks the feature debut of Métis filmmaker Berkley Brady, and is an anxiety-inducing horror-thriller set and filmed in the vast Canadian Rockies almost entirely with practical FX and real stunts. With
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Cruise Once, many, many moons ago, I worked a temporary job at a call center, and it was the most soul-sucking employment I have ever experienced. Writer/director Samuel Rudykoff’s horror comedy Cruise ratchets up things to another level as his short sees employees at a scam cruise-contest call center lose their souls along with their lives if they don’t close calls successfully. Jake (Chad Andrews) and Mark (Simon Pond) both give it their best shot, with an unforgiving supervisor (Ray James) keeping a close watch. The performances are all super solid, and Rudykoff does a great job building suspense while delivering laughs. Exo Sapien South African science fiction suspenser Exo Sapien, written and helmed by Fried Barry director/cowriter James C. Williamson, finds space explorer Cass (Lisa Scholtz) trying to survive on a hostile Earth after her vehicle crashes in a remote area. Suffering memory loss and being hunted down by scavengers and other dangers, she carries with her a mysterious
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsThriller
Night Breakers Here’s a creature fraught with suspense not only from potential monster attacks but also from the apprehension and paranoid feelings between characters. A group of people — leader Joel (Andrew Tarbet), Mei (Chacha Huang), Sunna (Anna Gonzalvo), Trevor (Pol Fernandez), Martin (Marc Padró), and Jacob (Sergi Subirà) — are traversing a dark path through maze-like caves to reach a city. Each member is wearing strings of bright lights powered by ever-weakening batteries. These lights fend off vicious beasts but as soon as someone’s lights go out, they become monster chow. As batteries become more scarce, tensions rise and the humans become as dangerous as the creatures pursuing them. Cowriters/codirectors Gabriel Campoy and Guillem Lafoz have crafted a terrific, tension-filled short that cries out to be turned into a feature, and their cast members all give top-notch performances. Unicorn Bisexual man Charles (Charles Gould) has arranged a first-time meeting with couple Bella (Brianna Baker) and Larry (Patrick Woodall) to
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesNews
The always incredible Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates its 26th anniversary in Montreal this summer, running from July 14—August 3. North America’s largest genre film fest, Fantasia boasts more than 130 feature films and more than 200 shorts from around the globe. Here are five of the many horror titles that look to be highly intriguing, with comments from yours truly in italics after the official festival descriptions. Glorious Ryan Kwanten (TRUE BLOOD) and J.K. Simmons (WHIPLASH) star in veteran genre journalist, filmmaker, and podcaster Rebekah McKendry’s wickedly funny, mind-bending mix of comedy, horror, sci-fi and gloriously indescribable weirdness. In GLORIOUS, After a breakup, Wes (Kwanten) ends up at a remote rest stop and finds himself locked inside the bathroom with a mysterious figure speaking from an adjacent stall. Soon Wes realizes he has found himself in a nightmare scenario more terrible than he could ever imagine. World Premiere. Dr. McKendry is a fright-film treasure, an expert in the field
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Girls Night In Director Alison Roberto’s horror comedy Girls Night In takes a satirical stab as it takes into consideration The Bechdel Test, which, according to https://bechdeltest.com, “is a simple test [about films] which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. ” This blast of a short film, with a clever screenplay by Landon LaRue, finds cautious, diabetic Becca (Jess Adams) and her outgoing friend Delaney (Skylar Benton) spending the evening over a bottle of what the latter insists is carb-free wine, when an intruder with deadly intentions invades the former’s home. As the girls attempt to shelter themselves in Becca’s bathroom and call 911 for help, the absurdity kicks in. Adams and Benton are obviously having a lot of fun in their roles. As with much satirical comedy, the humor is divisive, using elements that would not
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
A Wounded Fawn Director Travis Stevens’ new feature A Wounded Fawn starts off in the world of high-end art and winds up in the depths of a serial killer’s mind, taking concepts from Greek mythology along for the entire ride. The result is a superb blend of supernatural and psychological horror from the man who helmed Jakob’s Wife and Girl on the Third Floor. Meredith (Sara Lind) has successfully gotten out of and over an abusive relationship, and she is ready to test the dating waters once again. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to her, the man she plans to spend the weekend with at his remote cabin is Bruce Ernst (Josh Rubin), who is revealed at the beginning of the film to be a murderer. Meredith becomes suspicious of Ernst when she sees an art piece at his home depicting The Erinyes — also known as The Furies — that just recently passed through the auction house where she works. Seasoned fear-fare
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Austrian horror film Family Dinner serves up characters and situations that haunt long after the ending credits roll. Wonderfully acted, grim, and unsettling, writer/director Peter Hengl’s debut big-screen feature does a fine job of getting under the skin of viewers. Simi (Nina Katlein) is an overweight teenager who visits her Aunt Claudia (Pia Hierzegger), a published cookbook author and authority on nutrition, in the hopes of losing some weight. Her visit is met with a cool welcome, and she is told that she must leave in a few days, before Claudia, her new husband Stefan (Michael Pink), and Claudia’s son from her first marriage, Filipp (Alexander Sledik), celebrate Easter. Simi must room with Filipp, and his despisal of her is clear from the beginning. He taunts her by showing off his torso, and his relationship with his mother and new stepfather is also highly strained. Claudia seems to be either skirting around information or outright lying when she is not
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
LGBTQ horror is having a strong year, from the film festival success of Hypochondriac to the upcoming Kevin Bacon vehicle They/Them to the resurrected release this month of the 2010 cult film All About Evil. Writer/director Carter Smith (The Ruins) delivers a squirm-inducing entry into the subgenre with Swallowed, which uses both body horror and survival horror in its nerve-wracking tale of plans gone awry among two friends. Benjamin (Cooper Koch) is celebrating his last night in town before moving to Los Angeles to become a gay porn actor. His straight best friend Dom (Jose Colon) is concerned about Benjamin’s future, so he has a plan to make some fast cash for his buddy. What Dom believes is a simple drug run turns out to be much worse than that, as the pair are held at gunpoint by deal go-between Alice (Jena Malone) and forced to swallow bags of illicit goods. When they go to a specified rest stop to
Continue reading →
EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNewsTrailers
Let’s be honest; family dinners are a nightmare for most people. The new film, titled Family Dinner, turns into terror. Ahead of its premiere at Tribeca on June 10th, the teaser trailer has arrived for the film, written and directed by Peter Hengl. In the foreign-language film (with English subtitles), “Tired of feeling down about her weight, plus-sized 15-year-old Simi (Nina Katlein) heads to her aunt Claudia’s house for Easter weekend. Claudia (Pia Hierzegger), a popular nutritionist who’s written best-selling health books, so for Simi, spending a few days together could help change her diet and inspire weight loss.” “What should’ve been a nice holiday weekend with family quickly reveals anything but. Simi’s cousin, Filipp (Alexander Sladek), is curiously hostile towards her, while Filipp’s stepdad, Stefan (Michael Pink), is curiously the opposite towards Simi. At the same time, Claudia’s dietary guidance verges on becoming overly militant. What’s causing everyone to act so strangely and aggressively? The answers are even worse
Continue reading →
